


Love

by spaceboy



Category: Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell Series - Chelsea Cain, Gretchen Lowell Series - Chelsea Cain
Genre: (i marked it as rape/noncon just in case but it's def dubcon), Drabble, Dubious Consent, F/M, Whumpmas in July
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25053022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceboy/pseuds/spaceboy
Summary: Drabble exploring what life is like after Archie and Gretchen finally run away together which THEY WILL DO I SWEAR
Relationships: Gretchen Lowell/Archie Sheridan





	Love

In the end he comes back to her willingly.

Her control over him is absolute.

\--

Sometimes she keeps him so drugged and in so much pain that he doesn’t know who he is, doesn’t know anything except that he loves her, and that’s all he says over and over:

“I love you, Gretchen, please, Gretchen, please. . . .” 

and she asks him, “Please what, darling?” 

and he says, “Please don’t leave me, I love you, Gretchen.” 

and she smiles and says “I’m here, darling, I won’t leave you, darling, I won’t let you go,” and she hurts him again and he is grateful because it means she is still with him. 

She keeps him in the basement during these times, and he can’t keep time straight, usually he thinks that it’s still the same basement she first took him to in Gresham years ago, and that he’s never really left it. The sex during these periods is passive on his part, is a matter of her taking what she wants and giving what amuses her.

He’s on his knees, strung up by his hands, and she holds his face tilted up to meet her eyes.

“Where do you belong?”

“Here. I belong here. I belong with you.”

“You belong _to_ me,” she corrects gently, and he repeats it gratefully:

“I belong to you.”

\--

The rest of the time he is lucid, only allowed enough pills to keep the worst of the pain and the beginnings of the withdrawal symptoms at bay. This is the time when they live like they are almost normal: they go out to the theater and to cocktail parties and hold hands, and everyone remarks how charming she is and how he seems awkward and sad but so deeply in love with his wife. No one has ever seen him look twice at another woman, but it’s like he can never drink in enough of Gretchen. 

These are the times when she makes him kill for her, or help her to kill. During these times he feels guilty, he knows what he’s doing is wrong and he knows that he is damaged but also at fault. But he also knows that the only thing that will make him feel better is her. The sex during these times is wild and furious, a constant desire to take out his helplessness on her, while knowing in the end he will do anything to please her.

Sometimes he wonders if the lucid times are the hallucinations, and the time in the basement is all that is real. But it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that he is here. He is with her. He is right where he belongs. 


End file.
